Electrical lighting has become commonplace in modern society. Electrical lighting devices are commonly deployed, for example, in homes, buildings of commercial and other enterprise establishments, as well as in various outdoor settings. Even in a relatively small state or country, there may be millions of lighting devices in use. Lighting design, however, can be very complex and require specialized expertise along with highly customized tools.
Even a single supplier or manufacturer may offer thousands of lighting products for a multitude of lighting applications and/or in a variety of aesthetic styles. For each such product, the manufacturer will have physical and operational data about the product that may need to be considered and processed when a person is deciding whether or how to use each particular product for that person's desired lighting project.
Lighting solutions, particularly in commercial and/or high-end residential spaces, are typically designed by representatives of lighting manufacturers. Such lighting professionals design lighting solutions to meet the needs of current or would-be occupants of the space, but with a particular lighting manufacturer's product line in mind. As such, the current or would-be occupant might have multiple alternative solutions from which to select with the assistance of a lighting designer. Even if initially chosen by a customer, the designer often needs to process information about a product to design an installation to meet building codes and/or customer expectations, e.g. number and arrangement of selected fixtures to achieve desired light levels. Furthermore, lighting installers and/or service technicians are often tasked with ensuring complex lighting solutions are properly installed and functioning optimally, which requires access to product specifications.
However, identifying a particular lighting product, visualizing the particular lighting product within a space, and retrieving detailed information related to the lighting product and the lighting product within the space has remained difficult and often requires transitioning between multiple applications with manual data entry that increases the time involved as well as the potential for error.